THE banging of a gavel drew Eden Bexley out of her head and to the scene at hand.

Two days after John B. was thrown unconsciously into the back of a cop car, it was announced that his preliminary hearing would take place. Eden had been counting yet dreading on the day since Pope Heyward told the group—this gave her a chance to see her best friend again, to make sure he was okay yet at the same time, he was being sentenced. 

99% of Kildare County will find peace in his sentence—the stuck up Kooks, the senseless and closed minded people who sided with Ward Cameron merely because he was Ward, the Pogues who saw John B. as an ally turned backstabber—while the remaining 1%—JJ, Pope, Kiara, Sarah, and Eden—would be left in a mess. 

Eden was sitting in the second row of pews with Sarah at her side—the blonde looked rather tired, yet anxiety was expressed inside of her sunken features. Behind the two Kooks is Kie and Pope, with JJ sitting on the edge of a pew behind them. 

At the front of the room is John B., back turned to the rows of pews and towards the judge.  He's dressed in a bright orange jump-suit and has metal cuffs enabling his hands, which makes Eden feel sick. He shouldn't be there. She should be watching Rafe Cameron get sentenced in handcuffs, not her best friend. 

"John Booker Routledge, pursuant to the North Carolina statue section 14—" the judge begins speaking and Eden's eyes are locked on John B. Her anxiety is running wild as she prepares herself to hear his sentence. "—you are charged with murder in the first degree with aggravated circumstances. If convicted, the maximum sentence would be the death penalty."

Eden feels her jaw drop as the judge strikes her gavel again.

They were going to kill him.  They were going to fucking kill him for something he wasn't even guilty of.

Eden Bexley had just gotten her best friend back—the Pogues had been reunited as a lost family mere days ago—and he was being ripped right from her hold; with no chance of running off to the Bahamas, this time. She was really going to fucking loose him. 

 And while the judge had said 'if convicted', the Bexley knew he would be; Ward would make sure of it. The Cameron man wouldn't stop until John B. Routledge was gone, until he and his son were off the hook completely.

And to make matters worse? John B. was a child. He was seventeen—guilty or not, the death penalty seemed outrageous for a teenager. Eden was pissed off because he was her innocent best friend, sure, but the fact that he was so young and was receiving the ultimate punishment reigned high in her head, too.

 The sentence caused the whole court room to start clamoring in conversation. Some were just as appalled with the sentence, beginning to protest, while others could care less that a child would be killed for a crime he didn't commit. 

JJ's voice rises from behind her, "Your Honor, he's seventeen!"

"Stop." Kiara puts a hand on his chest, trying to stop him from causing a scene.

And while Eden could see why the Carrera didn't want him yelling out to the judge, she couldn't stop herself from doing the same thing as she looks down at Sarah. The blonde shudders and looks on the verge of tears—she was going to loose her boyfriend.

That's all it takes for Eden Bexley to start protesting too, "You—you can't do that! Your Honor, he's seventeen! He's a kid!"

"Quiet in the courtroom!" The judge bellows.

Her words only spurred JJ further, the blonde once more calling out, "No—he's seventeen! Are you kidding me?" His hatred for the justice system burned even more as the judge proceeded to hush the crowd.

"Bailiff!"

Pope tries to calm his friends down, "You're good, you're good—"

Eden ignored the Heyward boy and continued to call out to the judge, still utterly upset about the sentence. "No, I'm not good, Pope. She can't do that—Your Honor, he's seventeen! You can't do that!"

At the sound of his friends yelling, John B. turns to look back and Eden's heart sinks as she notices the terrified expression he holds. His eyes are widened and he tries to take in his friends because in all honesty, he doesn't know if he'll see them all again. 

"Hey, John B—John B., we're gonna figure it out." the Maybank boy calls out to the boy, pointing at the Routledge.

"John B.!" Sarah's voice wailed as she pushed past Eden towards the front of the courtroom. She couldn't let them take him away from her. She let the fear of not seeing him again lead her forward, "John B.!" The boy turned back to look at her, eyes hollow. "John B.—no!"

An officer stepped in front of the Cameron girl with an unamused expression, dismissing her by placing his hands on her figure and pushing her backwards.

"Sarah—don't touch her! Leave her alone!" Eden raised her voice at the cop, grabbing Sarah's hand and pulling her back. She leans to the side to see her best friend, meeting his gaze with soft features. She nods firmly; We'll take care of her. Despite the cop in front of her, she calls out once more, "We got you, John! We're gonna get you out of here!"

"Eden, Sarah, come on." Kiara approaches the two girls, taking the Cameron's free hand in her own to start pulling her towards the courthouse doors. "Let's get out of here."

The Pogues exit the courthouse angry and distraught, which the comments from the amongst others didn't help with. 

"Justice is served."

"He had it coming."

The Kooks around whispered and gossiped about the sentence as if it were mere gossip rather than a seventeen year old's life on the line and it made Eden want to punch one of them in the face.

"Is this a joke?" Kiara scoffed humorlessly as they exited the courthouse, whispering quick to hit their ears. "Like, are we in hell, or......?"

Voice wobbling, Sarah states, "I should have never come home."

"They're gonna kill him, guys." JJ says, looking at his friends with tense features. "I know it."

Eden tries to think of the better side of things, but she couldn't. There's no way that John B. wouldn't be tried and killed for the murder of Peterkin, no matter how many people tried to prove he was innocent. Ward Cameron wouldn't let it happen—not when he was this close to being out of the story entirely.

But, despite the shitty odds, Eden would try. She would try with her friends to get him out of jail, to prove him innocent, before he was taken away for good. "We'll get him out before that. We'll find something—"

"I'm so sorry about what you and your family have gone through. Thank God the system works."

The Pogues whirl around to see a man speaking to Ward Cameron, a solemn expression on his face—as if Ward went through shit. It pissed Eden Bexley off to say the least, and she couldn't help herself as her voice echoed, "Excuse me?"

The Bexley's eyes suddenly narrow in on her parents, standing at Ward's side and if anything that made her even more pissed off.

So, she proceeded to call out the man.

"If anyone deserves an apology, it's John B." 

"He'll have his day in court." The man who'd originally spoken replied, sending a pointed gaze her way. Ward and Rose watched to the side, while Isla and Tom went thin lipped at the sight of their daughter standing up for the accused murderer—for making a scene. "A jury will decide."

"He shouldn't even be the one in court!" the Bexley yells, watching as the man and the Cameron's started to walk away. Isla and Tom stayed in place. "They should." She points accusing fingers at Ward and her mother, the woman's line drawing into a thin line. "They're  both covering up for a murder, they're making you believe it was John B. They're letting Rafe Cameron get away with it, all because she—" She points directly at Isla, "—is too afraid to speak up for herself."

"Eden, enough." Tom Bexley's voice firmly states. Eden doesn't even meet his gaze. "We're leaving. Let's go."

"You really think I'm gonna go anywhere with her?" Eden exclaims, bluntly. She doesn't care that she's in public having this altercation—she'd rather people have to question who's really telling the truth. "I hate to be the one to break it to you, Dad, but your wife is a pathetic excuse for a—"

Ward quickly steps forward before the Bexley can even insult her mother, trying to calm the girl down. "I know you're upset. I understand you're upset, Eden—"

"Upset? Yeah, no, I think I'm a little more than upset right now!" Eden exclaims looking at the Cameron man with nothing but anger. While she never loved Ward Cameron like the rest of the OBX, she was surely far from ever doing it now. "Not only do you put my best friend in jail for something he never did, you're gonna let him get killed for it! You're gonna let a seventeen year old boy get killed just because you can't let your reputation crumble even the slightest! And what's worse? You have my mom in some hold so she can't even try to make the right choice. So, yeah, I am a little over the brink of upset—"

"I know he's got you fooled." Ward reasons loudly, gesturing to the Bexley and his group of friends, "He's got you all fooled."

"The only one who has us all fooled is you and your psychopath of a son!" Eden spits, body moving towards the Cameron as she spoke. Clearly, that seemed to be the final straw for the cops, because she immediately felt arms grab hold of her own, stopping her from a more physical altercation with Ward—in the corner of her eyes she sees Shoupe and Thomas at her side.

The cops quickly shoved her back towards her group of friends, to which the Pogues were quick to grab a hold of her, trying to pull her away from the officers.

"Show some respect!" Ward calls out, jabbing a finger at the girl. 

Eden rolls her eyes as her friends stand protectively in front of her, "I'm the most respected teen on this goddamn island, maybe you should! "

The crowd begins clamoring. The officers and deputies are standing in between the Pogues and Kook royalty, the Pogues were yelling in defense of Eden while cameras clicked and the crowd gasped and muttered about the scene ahead—Eden Bexley; Kildare Princess turned crazy would be the news headline the next day.

"Get off!" Sarah yells to the officers trying to get towards Eden, "Get off!"

JJ puts an arm in front of the Bexley and Cameron, pointing towards Thomas, "Muzzle your goddamn dog!"

Pope stands defensively close to Eden, "Get off her!"

"Why don't you take the Kooks down for a change, Shoupe!?" the Maybank called out, looking at the Sheriff with a unwavering expression.

"You wanna get arrested?" Shoupe snaps in reply, staring down the group of teens. "Get out!" His eyes narrow on the Bexley girl who'd started the commotion, and he jabbed a finger towards her, "You need to go."

Eden scoffs, "This is all bullshit."

"Come on." Sarah mutters softly as she wraps an arm around the Bexley reassuringly, helping her walk away from her parents and the Cameron's. "Come on. Look, it's not worth it."

As the Pogues begin to start walking away from the scene, Kiara halts in her track and turns towards Isla and Ward, getting the final word of the argument as she calls out, "It's not by coincidence that your daughters' are sitting with us!"

"Everybody, let's keep going. Nothing to see here, let's go!" Plumb waved the crowd away.

Shoupe dismissed. "Party's over."

"Show's over, folks. Keep it moving. Let's go."

The comment from Kiara had managed to catch a reaction from both Isla and Ward, who halted in their tracks to look at their daughters. 

However, all they were met with were the girls' backs, the two walking away without the smallest of a glance back at their parents.

The Pogues returned to the Chateau, unsure of what to do.

Thunder rumbled outside and rain poured, soaking the grass and pattering against the roof—almost as if the sky was feeling sympathy for the Pogues, who sat in utter silence trying to figure out what to do, what to say. They all knew that they needed to get John B. out before he was convicted further, but how? Trying to talk to Shoupe or any reasonable adult was out of the question by now, and the one woman who had evidence wanted something they had no clue how to find in return.

The group sat on the porch, listening to the rain pour as they tried to brainstorm. Sarah was staring out at the gloomy sky—the weather added to the down and depressed atmosphere the Chateau was filled with once more—JJ against the wall; Kiara was hunched over in the rocking chair while Pope was massaging his temple in the small chair to the side. 

Eden was curled up against the rocking chair, knees pressed to her chest and uninjured arm draped over her knees. Her lips were pursed and she blankly stared toward the wall—everything was now doom and gloom in her mind. 

"I'm gonna testify under oath." Sarah turns around to face the group, face set in a firm expression. "I was there. I just need to get a hold of my sister."

JJ looks down at the floor, scoffing, "Sister."

"Eden, do you have your phone?" the Cameron girl looks down towards Eden. Blankly, the Bexley moves her arm to the floor and hands over her phone without a word. Sarah takes the phone and continues, "Wheezie is the only other person that knows Rafe wasn't home that day."

The Maybank looks almost offended as he baffles, "Wheezie?"

"I don't know what else to do. I got us into this mess. I'm gonna do my best to get us out." Sarah states before turning to go into the Chateau, the Bexley's phone in her grasp so she could message the youngest Cameron.

JJ scoffs once more, "Wheezie? Yeah, that will work."

"Don't hate on Wheezie." Eden sighs tiredly from her spot on the floor. Whether or not Wheezie was the best option, Sarah had a point—they had to do something. "Sarah's right, we need to do something."

"Agreed. Our boy is a PO-dub right now, okay?" JJ states, voice loud and firm, "He's being held captive by the enemy right now, maybe even scheduled for execution—" Kiara stands up to argue and he exclaims, "Are we just gonna sit here!?"

"What's the plan?" Kiara raises her voice, standing up to meet the boys level, "We start by kidnapping Shoupe?"

"Maybe." JJ bluntly exclaims, causing all three Pogues to send him the look. Clearly, Kiara's suggestion was a sarcastic jab, but the Maybank saw it as a better option than listening to the rain pour. "Like, that's not the worst idea, actually."

Eden lets out a sigh and leans her head back, "JJ."

"Oh, it's not?" the Carrera scoffed, voice raising in pitch. 

"No!"

Pope turns his head toward the arguing teens, dead panning, "That is actually the worst idea I've ever heard."

From inside the house—the window was open, giving Sarah access to the entire argument—the Cameron girl's face scrunches up, "It's pretty bad."

"You know what?" JJ whips to face Sarah,  lips drawing into a thin line as he halts from saying something harsh, "Please, just stay out of this." He then turns back towards the Heyward boy, "Okay, Pope, look, we've been doing everything your way, and how has that been working out?"

Eden pushes herself off the floor, feeling the room growing more tense by the moment—things had been unusually tense between the Pogues since the morning after John B. and Sarah died, and ever since, smaller and smaller things had been causing them all to tick and burst at one another. The Bexley hated it; she misses the days where they all got along and spent more time laughing than fighting.

"Okay, J, the camera wasn't even his fault, and it was a pretty decent idea." Eden reasons, looking between the two boys, Pope looking slightly offended by the comment just thrown at him. "It was Kiara's."

Kiara whipped to face the Bexley with a 'try me' sort of expression, "We are not going there today."

"I'm just saying." Eden raises her hands in defense. 

"No, Eden, it's fine." Pope looks at the girl before narrowing his eyes at the Maybank. He rises to his feet and stares at the boy, "What's your plan? You gonna storm a jail, guns-a-blazing?"

The Maybank stands up, face to face with the Heyward, "Look, Pope, all I'm trying to get you to understand is they got our boy. Are we just gonna sit here and do nothing?" He looked between all of his friends now, "No! We're gonna go get his ass! We're gonna do something about it!"

"JJ, we're not storming a jail." Pope shakes his head, unimpressed with how dense the Maybank could be at times like this. "It's not happening."

"No, fine, man." JJ stated nonchalantly, voice no longer raised. "Sit in your comfy chair. Do nothing." He looks towards the girls, "I'm gonna see what I can do.  Make something happen, even if I have to do it by myself."

As JJ sets his hat backwards on his head, Kiara dryly states, "Okay."

The Maybank runs out into the pouring rain, leaving his other three friends.

Eden puts her fingers on the bridge of her nose, "We really just need to stop being assholes to each other."

Pope turns to look at his remaining friends, "Should we be worried?"

"Yes, for sure." Kiara replies, before adding, "Look, I'm gonna hit my parents, and I'm gonna see if I can get money for a lawyer." 

"Worse case scenario, I steal yet more cash from my parents." Eden nods at the Carrera. She didn't want to go back home until her mother turned what she knew into Shoupe, but she would go home to steal money for John B. —she'd do it all to make sure he was safe right now.

Pope looked between then two girls, "John B. has a public defender. He really doesn't need that right now."

"Are you crazy?" Kiara sends him an incredulous look, "Justice costs money." 

Eden nods in agreement, "Besides, I'd feel safer if he was with a lawyer than a public defender who probably has their head up their ass like the rest of this island and won't give two shits towards what John B. has to say."

 "You're right." Pope slowly agrees before continuing, "So, I'm gonna dig in hard into anything I can find out about this key because that tape Limbrey has, that's exculpatory evidence. That can exonerate John B."

Eden agrees with the Heyward on finding the key, "What we heard will help John B.'s case. Evidence from Gavin, the phone call between my mom and Ward stating Rafe shot Peterkin—we need it. I really want to see the right people go down for all of this."

Despite being angry that Limbrey was making them give her something for the audio recordings—if she was a good person, she would have turned them in when she got her polished finger nails on them—she still wanted that audio. It would make Ward guilty, her mother guilty. It could help them so much.

Kiara nods her head, "Yeah, we gotta try."

Eden opens her mouth to say more but is quickly stopped as Pope walks over to Kie, placing a hand on her waist, to which the Carrera brushes away. The Bexley's face scrunches up and she has to stop the groan from falling from her face—not this again. How many times would she be forced to endure her friends' romantic tension?

"We'll talk about it later?" Kie looks up at the Heyward, "Okay?"

She doesn't let him say another word before she walks back into the house. 

"Um, okay." the Bexley girl awkwardly comments. She isn't sure why she always ends up near an awkward romantic moment between her friends, but somehow, she does—Kie and John B.'s kiss, Kie and Pope's kiss on the dock after John B. left for Mexico, everything that had happened within the past month with Kie and Pope. 

Pope sighs, "I don't know what I did. She's been acting......off ever since last night on the break."

"I'm sure you did nothing, Bubs." Eden reasons. If anyone was going to mess up what Kie and Pope had, it would be the Carrera. She's sure that Kiara has her reasons, but she also feels like the girl should say  something if something was wrong—they didn't need any more tension than normal. "I'm sure that it's probably been a weird transition for her going from you being her friend to her boyfriend and that might stay for a little while. And everything that's happened this week has probably been hard on her—she took what her mom said about boarding school hard. Just try to help her; give her space if that's what she wants, let her come to you if she wants comfort."

Pope nods slowly and Eden adds, "Besides, we've all been assholes to each other today and I'm sure until we figure out something with John B., it's gonna stay that way because that's who we are—JJ will keep coming up with half baked plans because he's being dense, Kiara will try and argue her way through things because she feels the need to state every opinion she has. You'll keep getting mad at JJ for his ideas because you're right, they're flat out stupid at times and I'll keep running my mouth at police officers and adults and at you guys because I don't know how to shut up sometimes." 

The Heyward nods again, "Thanks."

"I might not be in an actual relationship but you can always talk to me about you and Kie, if you want." Eden shrugs, walking towards the inside of the house. "Can't expect me to stay serious, though, if you do something extremely cringey."

Pope slightly smiles, "Of course not."

The Cameron Estate was just as tense as the Chateau. 

Isla Bexley sat on one of the lounging chairs, body stiff as she stared out the windows to see the rain patter against the clean-cut pavement. She picked at her nail polish, chipping the shiny red coat—she hated the stupid tick she'd had since she was a teenager, but it'd never go away. Isla always found herself having to repaint her nails because of it.

Beside her was Ward, who looked exasperated as he ran a hand over his face—who wouldn't be if they were in his position? Over the past month, then Cameron man had been forced to deal with the constant ringing of the Pogues' chants of 'murderer' and the constant stories from Shoupe and Plumb that the kids had come in yet again to say he was guilty, and he was starting to grow weak with it. He isn't sure how many more times he can brush off the accusations before someone believes them.

It surely didn't help that he had his daughter against him. Sarah was his girl, and he was betraying her by staying innocent and no matter how much he knew he couldn't let the truth slip, it made him sick—seeing her today, walk off with Eden and the Pogues made him sick. 

Isla too felt herself stuck, lips pressed in a thin line as she gazed over at the Cameron. Since high school, the two had been close—he was a Pogue, she was a Kook; they were bound to be enemies yet somehow, they weren't. As most on Kildare would remember, the two had actually dated for a portion of time during high school, before having a mutual break up, leaving Ward for Tom Bexley, fellow Kook who'd managed to capture the girls eye.

But, that hadn't broken the two's bond. They continued on as friends as Ward found his first wife, continued as Ward grew in status and in money, continued as him and Isla became some of the most respected people on this island. They were accomplices, business partners—Ward and Isla were each other's ride or dies, despite the childishness of the phrase.

Ward had helped Isla with many problems in her past, so when he had called her to say he'd accidentally killed Big John Routledge —her daughters best friends' father—and discarded his body in the water, Isla had been obliged to say she'd help him cover everything up. Help him keep the secret. Just once.

Just once had turned into thrice—she'd kept the secret of Big John, she'd kept the secret of Gavin and she'd kept the secret of Peterkin—and now Isla didn't feel like Ward Cameron was her friend. He wasn't someone who she laughed with, drank with, hung around without purpose. Now their friendship was about secrets and cover-ups, about lies and protecting each other. Instead of being obliged, she was forced to cover up his mess.

However, Isla was growing weary of how Ward was going to finish this. Keeping his secret was straining the poor relationship she already had with Eden, and no matter how much her daughter got on her nerves, or how often she wished the girl was different, she didn't want to loose Eden completely. Eden was still her daughter, her baby.

Simply, she didn't want her family to fall apart too—not like how Ward was loosing Sarah and Rafe because of this mess.

However, it was already starting too. It was only so long before Tom took Eden's cries into consideration and started questioning how truthful she was being, and Eden already knew about everything and wouldn't stop calling Isla out about John B. and Peterkin until she got her way.

In simple words, the mess she was being dragged into was growing bigger by the second and she needed Ward to figure out what he was going to do before she lost her family and her reputation in one swoop.

"Eden practically called the two of you out in front of the entire island." Rose Cameron entered the small room, three glasses of alcohol in her hands. She set one of the table for Isla before handing one to her husband with a small, "Here, baby."

"She's upset." Isla takes the glass off the table, holding it tightly in her hands. Isla expected her daughter to make a scene—she was probably upset and angry over the sentence, over what happened the previous night, and rarely held herself back. 

"It's only gonna get worse." Rose glances between the Bexley and her husband, voice firm as she spoke. "With John B. and Sarah both testifying against us, Eden causing commotion, and Gavin missing....." 

Ward sets his glass down and shakes his head, "There was nothing I could do about Gavin, alright?"

Isla narrows her eyes his way. He could have hesitated against shooting the pilot, he could have held his anger back—he could have thought about how this would only put him in deeper shit than before. 

"You could have not killed him." Isla dryly comments, sending him a look. 

Ward sends her an identical look, "I told you. He came at me."

"Hey, I know. Baby, I know." Rose softly reassures that she wasn't blaming him for shooting the pilot. Isla leans back slightly in her chair, swirling her glass around in her hand as the Cameron woman continues, "Ward, I'm....I'm talking about how it looks."

"There's a pattern." Isla nods at the man beside her.

"If Shoupe believes John B.'s story—"

Ward shakes his head, "No, he won't. He won't."

"What if he does?" Rose asks, trying to get her husband to see her point. "If he does, look around. All of this, everything.....goes away."

"I know that, Rose."

The blonde woman's lip trembles, "It's gone."

"Rose is right, Ward." Isla sets her glass down, looking at the man with an unwavering gaze—she needed him to understand what was at stake. "If Shoupe believes anything of what John B. or Sarah or Eden or the Pogues are saying, it won't take him long to connect the dots. And believe it or not, I do not want to lose Tom or Eden, my house, my life, because of this. And I really don't want you to lose yours either."

"You think I don't know that?" Ward whispers angrily, "You don't think I know—"

"We have to do something!" Isla exclaims loudly. "This is your mess, Ward. Okay? Your mess. But you've dragged me, and John B., and Rose into this too. I've been helping you clean up your messes since Rafe shot Sue, and honestly, I'm sick of it. You needed to do something about this because I'm not going down for you, Ward. I'm not loosing my family or what I've built for myself because of you."

"What?" Ward stands up, looking at Isla. What could he possibly do at this point? He walked over to the window, hands running over his face as he grew more anxious and stressed over the situation.

Rose suggests, "Talk to Shoupe."

"I talked to him, alright?"

"Ward, talk to him again—"

"He's not gonna do anything else for us!"

"There has to be somebody—"

Ward throws his hands out, "There's not."

Rose gets out of her chair and comes towards her husband, putting her hands on his waist. "There has to be somebody that can help us, Ward.Think."

It's silent in the room for a moment as Ward wracks his mind for someone who'd be willing to help them. Isla sets her glass down on the table and after a split second of thinking. manages to picture one woman who could be willing to help if they bribed her enough.

"There might be someone." Isla speaks up, standing up with her arms crossed around her chest.

Rose turns to look at the woman, "Who?"

"Plumb."

mara's misc!

isla pov???? what????

i haven't really ventured out from povs in this fic but it was kind of fun to write isla's pov and what's happening on her end. get a little taste of what her and ward act like, and a little peek into their past together—yeah they def dated for a hot minute but ended up staying close friends now turned murdering besties.

i watched saltburn a few nights ago at like 1am with my friends and um.....it was interesting. didn't know how to feel during the bathtub or vampire scene but uh it happened and we lived. i actually fell asleep towards the end of the movie, got woken up by my friend to watch the graveyard scene, only to go back to sleep so ig i never finished the movie but i knew what happened. 

despite the odd scenes, it wasn't a terrible movie. the beginning is kind of slow in my opinion but oh well. i just wanted to see how interesting it truly was. i also watched euphoria so things could be crazier *shrugs*

this chapter is pretty chill tbh. we got eden speaking out bc ward and isla can't. also got her giving pope info on relationships even tho she can't speak on shit.

anyways, hope you enjoyed! see you back with chapter 44!